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Resources updated between Monday, September 09, 2013 and Sunday, September 15, 2013

September 12, 2013

Ban Ki-moon

The UN celebrated International Day of Democracy - the usual stuff, they talk, victims of non-democracies suffer. But this year's contribution of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was particularly ridiculous. With millions in the Arab streets, and millions more jailed, tortured and dying for attempting to achieve democracy around the world, Ban focused in on this: "apathy has become democracy's most insidious enemy..." Well it saved him from mentioning democracy's actual #1 enemies like Iran, China, Russia...

President Obama's foreign policy of engagement lies in tatters. Isolated as never before, his major address on Tuesday night was hopelessly incoherent. He told us that the touchstone for America's national security interest in Syria was 1,400 people who perished from chemical weapons, not 100,000 Syrians who have died from cruelty of all kinds. And then there was the specter of the real evil – the president stressing that not acting will "embolden Iran." Such a concern is a justification for targeting Iran, not Syria. But to paraphrase John Kerry, the president's 'unbelievably small' backbone won't carry that weight.

A six year old child bride with her Yemeni husband (National Geographic)

An 8-year-old girl who reportedly died after suffering internal injuries on the first night of her arranged marriage has sparked an outcry in Yemen, with activists calling for the groom's arrest. Kuwait newspaper Al Watan, citing Yemeni media reports, reported that the girl died in the northwestern city of Hardh. She is believed to have suffered a tear to her genitals on her wedding night, after marrying to a man more than five times her age. Activists in Yemen called the man a "beastly groom," calling for police to arrest him and the girl's family for making her go through the ordeal.

As the Obama administration struggles to defend a military strike on Syria, officials are having a difficult time squaring the administration's five year love affair with the United Nations with an impotent Security Council. Here is former UN Ambassador Susan Rice's unsuccessful attempt: "The fact is, President Obama has consistently demonstrated his commitment to multilateral diplomacy. He would much prefer the backing of the United Nations Security Council...But let's be realistic-it's just not going to happen now...[T]hree times, Russia and China doubled vetoed almost meaningless resolutions..." For years she carried on about Obama's (alleged) successes at the UN. Just a couple of months out of the job and it's now the UN's meaningless resolutions. Will the real Susan Rice please stand up?